A Body in My Office (2017) by Glen Ebisch
Good Reads meta-data is 300 pages rated 4.21 by 90 literatizens
Genre: krimi; Species: academic.
Verdict: he writes whereof he knows.
Tag line: keeping busy in retirement.
After a grim meeting with the Dean who is manoeuvring him into (in)voluntary retirement, Charles returned to his office only to find his successor already ensconced. Charles is taken aback and finds his successor to be vain, arrogant, supercilious, and belittling. Charles stumbles out in a daze. After some fresh air he returns to the office to collect his personal belongings only to find said successor lying there dead with his head smashed from a meeting with the crime writer’s best friend the blunt object.
Successor just got off the plane, while there was no doubting his ability to anger people, did he have time to move someone to murderous rage so quickly? Did his murderer follow him from England? Or was it a nearsighted murderer who thought Successor was Charles? But who would want to kill blameless Charles?
Successor was a species of academic well known: arrogant, conceited, and solipsistic. On bad days he is even worse. His approach to literature is consistent with his personality. It is barely worth his precious time to consider it. He speaks but Po-Mo in which both the book and the author disappear in a fog of neologisms.
The smarmy Dean was wonderful in his instantaneous volte face as the wind changed. One minute he is your BFF and the next he doesn’t see you. Even better was the slippery way he pushed Charles into retirement by assigning him to teach nothing but Freshman Composition for the rest of his days, because of his unique abilities. He dangled a financial carrot as an incentive to retire but as soon as Charles signed the carrot disappeared never to be mentioned again.
By the way the two semesters of FComp I did were among the most valuable things I ever did, and I hated it at and for the time, 3 pm to 5 pm every second Friday. It was valuable because I learned to write on demand. Application was the engine not inspiration. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!
Dean is abetted by an eagerly compliant Head of Department, who is a Russian emigré with a limited grasp of English but whose response to authority is obedience. His litany of mangled idioms are a treat to read but would be exhausting and distracting to hear. None of that disqualifies him from teaching AmLit. Since few students stick to his courses, he has plenty of time and publishes a lot…in Russian
Then there is Freud the lab rat, an innocent bystander, who is well integrated into the story. His associate Jung sat this one out. Maybe next time.
Loved the way widower Charles was manoeuvred into a double date without ever quite agreeing. That lioness of the Serengeti brought him low without breaking stride.
Spoilers dead ahead, me hearties.
I thought of middle names long before anyone did. It is prepared in text in that Charles uses his middle name, but he fails to suppose another might do the same. Likely or unlikely? You decide.
I guessed right for the villain but there were so many, easy opportunities it made me wonder why the wait, except to fill the pages. Mind you I enjoyed most of the fill.
How Successor got appointed remains a mystery. He may have had reason to leaving Old Blighty but how did he tumble onto an endowed chair in a minor Yankee college? Further, a chair that required the Dean to upend expectations and engender a feud with the scientists. It seems like a lot of bother with little gain for the Dean. In addition, it would be clear to anyone in five minutes that Successor was going to be high maintenance. A relentless calculator of decanal self interest would surely prefer to manage something easier and less taxing.
There are (too) many typos that slow reading and distract attention. Many are dropped letters at the start or end of word, ‘son’ becomes ‘on.’ Others are spell checker bites with ‘breaks’ instead ‘brakes’ on the car. Incidental I know but annoying.